Pakistan's deposed CJ visits home city

PAKISTAN: A week after his release from house arrest, Pakistan's deposed chief justice is launching a drive to win back his old job, in what could be a further political blow to embattled President Pervez Musharraf.

Hundreds of black-suited lawyers planned a hero's welcome in Quetta on Monday for Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as he makes the first in a series of trips across Pakistan to crank up support for the reinstatement of judges purged by the U.S.-backed president.

"By staging a marvelous welcome we want to send a message to the dictator, that the chief justice is the most popular person in Pakistan, wholeheartedly supported by the masses," said Ali Ahmed Kurd, a veteran lawyers' leader and Chaudhry supporter.

"The judiciary must be restored." Organizers predicted that crowds of people, including political and rights activists, would join lawyers on a snail-paced 10-kilometer (6-mile) parade from Quetta's airport after Chaudhry's arrival on a flight from Islamabad, where he was freed from house arrest last Monday.

Quetta, Monday, AP